


Interesting Times

by ThreadbareT



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:02:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23334307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThreadbareT/pseuds/ThreadbareT
Summary: The TARDIS has landed in an oak forest on Earth... or has it? There are two suns in the sky, and strange discoveries to be made.
Kudos: 2





	Interesting Times

“It’s Earth!” Ian said, looking at the viewscreen. “Surely, it has to be!”  
Barbara nodded, stepping closer to the screen. Her lips pursed in thought.  
Vicky strolled around the console, interested in the dials and counters, but carefully keeping out of the Doctor’s way. He was fussing and jabbing, in an agitated fluster.  
“Oh, is it now?” The Doctor hurrumphed from the console, as he tapped at the dials. “And what makes you say that, young man?”  
“The trees!” Barbara said. “They are oaks, big primordial oaks.”  
“Ferns,” Ian said, “and bracken. Even stinging nettles. All species native to Earth.”  
Barbara smiled. “All species native to England. To the New Forest.”  
“Yes.” The Doctor hit the console with the weighted head of his cane. “I thought the same. But the readings are… wrong?”  
Ian turned and looked at the dials. “Wrong, how?”  
“The gravity,” the Doctor said. “It is… changeable. It fluctuates a percent more, or less, than it should be for Earth.”  
Vicky chewed her lip. “A colony world perhaps?” She glanced to Ian and Barbara. “In my time we had travelled to many worlds and terraformed them, we seeded them with life, to make them hospitable. We planted trees and plants, entire forests to make them more hospitable.”  
Ian tapped his lips. “But look at that tree. It must be… centuries old.” He looked at the Doctor. “Are the readings dangerous Doctor?”  
“Not in themselves, not,” the Doctor said, “but they could indicate… difficulties. An anomaly that might prevent us leaving. They could also suggest some more immediate dangers I don’t have the equipment to detect.”  
Barbara offered him an understanding smile. “So, the only way to know if it is safe to take off, is to go and look?”  
The Doctor nodded. “I am afraid so.”  
A few minutes later the four of them were exploring the deep forest. Barbara and Ian made their way through the dappled sunlight and long grass, weaving a path through the broad trunked, ancient trees, their gnarled limbs knotted in a canopy above. The day was warm and golden, with the halcyon glow of summer.  
Butterflies wafted from a bed of weeds, and settled on a stooping branch. Ian and Barbara stepped softly closer, for a better look. Ian stepped back and stared at the floor. It took Barbara a moment to realise why.  
The shadows fell the wrong way, bending against each other. She shielded her eyes and looked up past the branches. The sky was pale grey almost white. Too pale to be Earth. She kicked off her shoes and took a run up. In seconds she was heaving herself up between the boughs, to the canopy. Just like the New Forest.  
She broke free above the trees.  
There were two blue suns in the ash grey sky.  
“Oh,” she sighed. “Not Earth then.”  
“No?” Ian asked, following her up. “Beautiful though, isn’t it?”  
“In a way,” Barbara admitted, with a sad smile.  
“Doctor!” Vicky shouted from a clearing, a wide furrow between the trees that spread all the way to the horizon. She was leaning over a hump shape, one of many scattered along the furrow, covered in vines and moss. “What is this?”  
Ian glanced at Barbara, and they began climbing down together.  
By the time they reached the clearing, the Doctor had pulled away the vines that covered the shape, revealing the rusting shell of a car. The bonnet had crumbled onto what was left of the engine block, and long grass and nettles had grown through the floor pan.  
“What is it?” Vicky asked.  
“A car,” Ian said. He scraped some of the weeds from the floor with his shoe, revealing the gritty remains on a black topped road. “It must have been a main road once.”  
Barbara saw the worried frown that pinched the Doctor’s face. She looked to Vicky. “You don’t recognise the shape Vicky?”  
“Well…” Vicky laughed. “I suppose I could tell it was some kind of ground vehicle, but the shape is so…”  
“Antique,” the Doctor muttered.  
“Oh?” Ian asked, shielding his eyes to look at the twin suns. “Is one of those looking bigger to you?”  
“Antique!” The Doctor repeated. “This car is steel and had rubber tyres. The road is asphalt.”  
Barbara looked around, curious. To her eyes the car looked as though it had been sleek, with elegant curving lines, and lots of light weight plastic. It was a glimpse at the future. “This doesn’t belong here?”  
“No,” the Doctor said, gently. “It is from a little in your future, but finding it on a colony world would be like… a Roundhead walking the street in your own time, or the army reverting to bows and arrows.”  
“A biplane touching down at Gatwick?” Ian offered.  
Barbara nodded. “So… Is this a ceremonial antique, perhaps? Their equivalent of the mayor’s coach pulled by white horses?”  
The Doctor shook his head. “This many cars? The road? A ceremonial route in the wilderness?”  
Ian looked up again. “Doctor, look at that sun…”  
The Doctor shielded his eyes and looked up. “Hmm?”  
“It’s moving!” Vicky realised with a gasp. “Look how much bigger the bluer one is, and how far apart they are!”  
“How could it do that?” Ian asked.  
The Doctor did not answer. He rubbed his chin, then looked closely at the blue gemstone set in his ring. It glittered brightly. He looked up at the suns, his nose pinching. “I wonder…”  
“Doctor?” Vicky asked.  
“I wonder if that is not a star, not a sun,” the Doctor said. “If I am right, the instruments in TARDIS will confirm it, now I know what to look for. Quickly now. We could be in the most terrible danger.”  
Barbara felt a cold chill on her spine. “Danger?”  
The Doctor hesitated. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. It would be prudent to¬”  
The world shimmered around Barbara, white hot pain flashed behind her eyes. She stumbled and dropped to one knee. She did not land on the grass and weeds, but on a black top road running through a forest. Four lanes were choked by cars at a standstill, all pointed away from the city on the horizon.  
The city was burning, consumed by fire, lights flashing and between the towers, smoke billowing into the blue sky. People abandoned their cars, stampeding over the crash barriers, and into the trees, running from something.  
Barbara wheeled around.  
Three Daleks, on hovering chariots, swooped down from the sky, their eyes glowing with menace.  
Barabara turned to run, but crashed into the Doctor. He caught her, and held her close.  
The forest was back, the crowds had gone.  
Ian stepped over, and took Barbara into a hug. “What’s wrong.”  
“I saw…” Barbara struggled to find the words. “Daleks. A war. The most terrible…”  
“An echo,” the Doctor said. “They could not hurt you.” He tugged on his lapels. “We must go. Now.”  
Together they hurried in the direction of the TARDIS, the familiar blue shape standing out against the verdant greens of the forest.  
The Doctor set to work, hurrying about the controls.  
“Are we in danger?” Vicky asked.  
The Doctor paused. “Yes.”  
Ian stepped closer. “Can we escape it?”  
“Yes,” the Doctor said, “but when we do, we will be at the most danger. If I miscalculate, if my programming of TARDIS is even one digit out…” He drew breath. “That is no sun. It is a Chronal Displacer, a Time Weapon orbiting this world. A war was fought here, or rather on Earth, a most terrible war, with the most terrible weapons, that scooped people, a city, a county, from one world, and dropped it here. The displacement would have killed…”  
“Everybody,” Barbara said. “Total extermination.”  
The Doctor nodded. “I can break free of its influence, but it could rip TARDIS apart, and we might suffer the same fate.”  
“Or,” Ian said, “if we stay here?”  
The Doctor pursed his lips. “We will eventually suffer the risk, as we succumb to the weapon and are dispersed.” He hesitated, his hand on the lever. “Perhaps in that time I will find a better plan, a surer survival. Perhaps…”  
Barbara placed her hand over the Doctor’s, and gently guided him to throw the lever.  
He nodded, understanding.  
The engines of the time machine groaned to life.  
It was ten very long seconds before any of them drew another breath. Relieved laughter followed.  
Barbara laughed too, and tried not to think of the nightmare she had glimpsed.


End file.
